Only Time Will Tell
by Doragoon
Summary: Clockwork overlooks how the Grim family came to be and where it shall be in the future. Companion to To Love Thy Sister. Hope everyone likes it.


Alright, so in a review somebody asked me can I write about what the Grim family has been through. See, I have changed the entire universe of Grim Tales so I guess my story would be AU sorta. I try to keep to the comic or at least the direction at which it's going in, but I kinda veered away from it. Now this has become much more than what I expected it to be. I got this idea from a guest reviewer, MART174, and it sounded too good an idea to past up, but I didn't want it to be part of the story because I have no way of fully incorporating it without veering away from the plot destination it has now…again. Hopefully, this will sort out any and all questions on the universe from which my story was born.

Prompt: _On the new chapter can you put clock work showing the grim family what jr's been though before clockwork charged it_

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In the Betwixt and Between realm, time stopped. Well, actually, time was irrelevant and just simply didn't exist. It was the same realm that souls would pass through on their way to their destinations. It was almost like that of limbo, but not as cold. It was here Clockwork was ruler.

Clockwork, the ghost of the ages and master of time. He was the spirit that aged you and made you grow, but also crippled your strength as you reach the peak of life and begin the descension into the earth. He saw what came, what was, and what would be, from the beginning and unto the end.

Clockwork was but a title.

When God made humans, when he saw that Adam and Eve were of knowledge and no longer ignorant of their place in the Garden of Eden, he knew that they could not stay alive forever. He needed something, someone, to return them to the heavens. If not, they, as any human that was to come, would overpopulate the Earth and his creations would be of failure. So he created a being that would be able to manipulate time and age all humans so they could die and be brought back. He oversaw each human's life both without and with the ability he dubbed the Butterfly Effect.

He selected each one carefully when he saw that even though they had the power of time, they still found their way and made good, benefitting or not. Those, when they died, didn't ascend to Heaven, but became a being as timeless as he was until He found another worthy of the title. They were then retired and sent to heaven as was custom for any soul.

But there had been a problem. One of his candidates had seen the greatness of the power he had and wasn't as good as those before. He continued to try and change his fate, tried to make it better and better. But as custom of having the Butterfly effect, anything that was meant to better yourself always backfired. He had so overused it; he split his being and died early. He was Clockwork, but he was much crueler, much more broken. He had seen what he'd done, but God had denied him a second chance, so more people died early and horribly. Death may plan how a person dies, but Clockwork planned _when_ they died. They both collaborated on a person's death and their dying, but the newest Clockwork would always make sure someone died just a little early than what was deemed necessary. Still, after some decades of being Clockwork, he mellowed, often helping those in the supernatural, starting with one boy named Danny Fenton, but that's a whole other story that would take much too long to tell.

Clockwork had also recently ran into the path of another boy, one closer to the supernatural than Danny could ever be; the Grim Reaper's legitimate son of his wife's womb.

"This boy shall bring about the end of the universe at the rate he's going."

Clockwork looked about the light blue realm. He had just gotten finished from the Cthulhu incident and was beginning to overlook the Grim family. A portal opened and he could see Grim no older than Jr. was. He waved his staff and it showed Mandeline when she was a child, sitting across from the person who as supposed to be the most feared being in the universe; Grim had just lost the game of limbo and was crying.

"The fool. Still, that woman scares even me. She will never die either."

He shuddered, but pressed on. It was recent to the picture before, but Mandy was now conversing with Grim; why hadn't she died yet? With all they'd been through, she and her companion, Billy, lived right on through. Grim dodged the question thrown at him, but complied with her need to see her death clock. Another wave, she was seen cutting her own throat, only for it to heal.

"I guess my companionship wasn't enough for the death maker."

The next wave had him wondering if that was the correct title for the being as Mandy went on her rampage at the World Trade Centers. He had never seen something as…fearsome as she since Grim's coming of title. Grim had done some of the most horrendous things he had ever seen; he'd seen the postcards. He waved again and Joe Black was on his knees. He remembered meeting the superhuman when Grim had fallen in love with a human.

"The human souls within Death's scythe."

The scythe was something that was particular to all Reapers. You were either born with one, took that of someone before you, or had to experience something so heartbreaking and painful that your scythe was made from your being to protect you through the harsh life you were to live. Once done, there was to be another part of your life, the part that split a piece of you and infused it into the scythe. Because Death was, in reality, an angel, there's a chance for you to be human, but because God needs death, you can't always be human, so instead, the soul is kept near you. It was very confusing and ofttimes, it was something that needed to be experienced to really understand it and it never came to surface for the first time at a particular time or under circumstances. It was random and showed when it wanted to. Grim's came when he fell in love.

"It was a tentative experience and I was unsure if I would have Death as a partner again."

Still, Grim knew what his job was and knew that no human, as far as he had thought, would be able to handle being immortal as well as his wife. He was wrong as Mandy said yes. Clockwork shook his head at that. He'd been best man…Billy was the Maid of Honor.

"I wish I never have to see a grown man in a dress and like it…or a thong as well."

Billy had been a little drunk at the reception and decided to go wild. Clockwork still had times where he wished he could puke to take his mind off the horrors.

He waved his hand and there they were, at the hospital sometime after their wedding. He heard the supernatural wail that echoed from the dead corpse. The Prince of the Underworld had been born.

Grim had been ecstatic and joyous. Mandy took to motherhood with a calm that brought sheer terror to Clockwork. She'd actually breastfeed him; she, who's eyes were the pits of darkness themselves. Still, she retained her demeanor quite easily and didn't show her subjects with the same calm hand. Those who crossed her ended up with limbs or life missing.

He breathed deeply and waved another hand and there it was. The entire reason for him to even help the Grim family. MiniMandy, the Princess of the Underworld.

The main reason that Minnie was even born was not because Nergal Jr. needed a child in his bargaining with Mandy to become her general. She had refused time and agfain for that to be her payment to him. But she didn't have a choice as she had signed her own contract the moment she stepped foot into the Underworld; at least a contract that pertained to being human in the supernatural.

Lucifer and his brother's had always been bastards, always wanting for a way to take revenge against God and his decision to cast them out. Mandy had truly just been a means to a plot they'd conjured in hopes of getting that revenge.

"I guess not even she would be above the trickery of the lords of sin."

They had come swaggering, confident she couldn't say no. In reality, she really couldn't. Grim hadn't lied when he said she would change just from entering the Underworld, but he figured she would only have to bear one child for her to stay in her human form forever. He didn't realize the loophole that _bear_ meant. She would have to give birth, live birth, to something supernatural for her to even be allowed into the realm without her appearance being disfigured, not abort it.

She had at first staunchly refused (they'd suggested one of them to be the father), but when she saw her hand become grotesque and malformed, she quickly changed into the anger of it all. She raged and raged until Nergal Jr. came once again, still waiting on if she would give him a child. She glared at the infuriation of it all, but quickly took to the fact that if she was going to do it, it would be on her terms. Minnie was born nine months later and Mandy's hand regained its humanity.

Clockwork had seen what that universe had been about. Jr. had grown along with his sister, but slowly, little boy Death began to resent his sibling for being born. She was more loved, more wanted, and he'd been shunned by the public. He didn't take notice of how the person everyone adored had much more than just adoration for him. It wasn't right, but then again, in the supernatural, nothing was supposed to be right. It certainly didn't stop the demon child from loving her brother.

It did, however, get her killed.

It was at that moment that the universes split into two roads. The first road was the original, the road where Jr. hated how he treated his sister, but it took him much longer to realize he had those feelings within himself as well. The other side of the coin was Jr. realizing he'd felt his heartbreak the moment she been torn in front of him and could do nothing about it.

Clockwork took a look at the first universe instead. Jr. had gotten his sister back, but at the cost of her life. Unless he was willing to give up his Nergalian powers, she would forever be dead, her body stuck in a timeless loop while he, as well as her soul, matured. She would know of what the love she had for her brother was supposed to lead to as she reached puberty, feeling the heat within her womb for the first time. It had been around the same time he'd left and gone to control his powers and find himself.

When he'd come back, when he finally saw his powers reach their peak, he'd come back for her and only her. He found his sister gone of her own free will, leaving to get away from her sorrows and to forget about him. It been emotional as well as painful, but he'd finally gotten her approval back. Even then, he still would have had to win back her love, one that was broken and muddied by years of disuse.

"The boy had been a great bounty hunter, but he would have made a great Reaper."

Still that universe had come short and ended at the point. It was because of the other universe, the universe Jr. himself created. Jr. had seen Minnie's love for what it was and taken and held it against himself. He didn't allow for her body, and consequently, her soul to remain in the broken state it had been in. He healed her body the moment he got his scythe and saved her from getting killed in the process. He exchanged her love with his and they'd become mates.

"The boy does not know what he's done. Soon enough, he'll see it."

Clockwork waved his hand. From out of the blue gabe came the vision of what was to come. Fire, screams, and blood splattered the screen and if Clockwork were any other being, he'd have been sickened. It was one of the good things about being the maestro of time; nothing was surprising.

"Reminds me of the early apocalypse that led to an ealier end of the world. It took Grim a long time to fix that problem and for me to rearrange the entire world's memory for no one to remember what had happened."

But he waved once more and the vision was much more…homier. There sat Jr. with his two sons on his lap on a throne. He was smiling and looking at his seeds with pride as they cooed at him. At both his sides lay two women draping themselves right above him, smiling in adoration from both sets of eyes.

"…love unto the end."

Jr. then looked straight into the blue mist that Clockwork swirled in his domain. The image shimmered and out walked a hardened boot.

"Checking up on me Clockwork?"

Jr., now Underworld's King, moved languidly, taking his time, especially since he had none that was to be wasted. It was a great thing to be in the Betwixt and Between. You don't have time to waste since there was none.

The son of the knowable Death had come dressed as always, like a general. A dual buttoned jacket sat on his torso, the coattail flaying out from behind and wreathed to look shredded and torn at the end. The sleeves were wide open and slowing as well. Still, at the collar was a hoodie that would cover his head and fall like a wave of hair onto his back. His pants were the only thing that remained the same since his childhood.

"Always the watcher, never the doer."

"Trust me; I've seen too much to know that my interference isn't needed. Especially in your case."

Jr. hummed his approval. He looked in the realm of the timeless blue.

"I remember this place. I still have nightmares from it."

"For you it was much longer than in truth. I have only just returned to my realm, but I remember what you speak. At the near end of your journey…when they'd-"

"Please…I still cling to my wives' forms at night for fear that they'll be just a dream. If it is a dream, however, I hope never have to wake up."

"I've seen your life boy, it's no dream."

Jr. chuckled at the thought and remembered his life. How he'd mated his sister and near lost her with his second mate. How his father had sent him to retrieve his stolen scythe from the hands of the Princes of Hell. He remembered the ordeal it was fighting each and every demon and the emotional drag trying to win his sister back and getting his second mate to accept her new life.

"I never would never have dreamed that my life would be like this, what it is now."

Clockwork had to smirk.

"But I did. Why you think I allowed you to change your future?"

Jr. shrugged. Clockwork smiled. He turned away from the General King and thought about his response to his own question.

"_Because even I don't know what shall come of the world when Death changes time. I had to allow for time to readjust. When I saw of your fate…it was better for your life with your sister than what it was before. With your mates"_

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**I don't know if I like this, but I've realized, nothing will come how I want it unless I decide to animate it and I can't do that. I hope everyone likes this and I will be right back to TLTS very soon.**


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